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<span id="GNU-Objective_002dC-Runtime-API"></span><h3 class="section">8.1 GNU Objective-C Runtime API</h3>

<p>This section is specific for the GNU Objective-C runtime.  If you are
using a different runtime, you can skip it.
</p>
<p>The GNU Objective-C runtime provides an API that allows you to
interact with the Objective-C runtime system, querying the live
runtime structures and even manipulating them.  This allows you for
example to inspect and navigate classes, methods and protocols; to
define new classes or new methods, and even to modify existing classes
or protocols.
</p>
<p>If you are using a &ldquo;Foundation&rdquo; library such as GNUstep-Base, this
library will provide you with a rich set of functionality to do most
of the inspection tasks, and you probably will only need direct access
to the GNU Objective-C runtime API to define new classes or methods.
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